By Paul Mcmillan

County Durham, Apr 24 2007 – A relative of a North East headmaster shot along with his wife in Africa today welcomed the death sentence handed out to one of the killers.

Richard and Enid Eyeington, originally from Pelton Fell, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, were murdered in October 2003 on an aid mission in Somaliland.

They were shot through the window of their flat in the Sheikh Secondary School, 500 miles north of Mogadishu, as they sat watching television.

Ahmed Ali Issa now faces death by firing squad while Ahmed Elmi Samater, Ibahim Jama Afkan and Da'ud Sahal Idleh have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The four were part of an eight-man gang convicted of the murders of four foreign aid workers in 2003 and 2004, including the Eyeingtons.

Italian aid worker Annalena Tonelli was shot dead in 2003 and Kenyan aid worker Flora Chepkemoi was gunned down at a roadblock outside the capital Hargeisa in March 2004.

Today, Mr. Eyeington's brother, John, said he was pleased at the punishment handed down to the men, despite the Foreign Office condemning Ali Issa's death sentence. John, 76, said: "I am a great believer in capital punishment if they are going to take human lives.

"Richard and Enid went over there to do good and these men go round and, not only kill Richard and Enid, but other people as well. It was just wanton killing and I think they deserve to die.

"It's been a few years since they did it and it's taken a long time to get here but if those people had been left they would have gone on to kill others.

"Richard had just got there on this new job and was sitting there watching television when there was this, `bang, bang', and that was it."

Richard Eyeington, a 62-year-old grandfather, had rejected his family's pleas not to move to the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, in the north of the African country.

The son of a coal miner, Mr. Eyeington attended grammar school in County Durham before going to teacher training college.

He married Enid, 61, a fellow teacher, in the early 1960s, and the couple had two children.

The family first moved to Africa in 1962, where Mr. Eyeington taught at a school in Kenya.

He later moved to Swaziland where he became headmaster of the United World College, an international school attended by columnist Matthew Parris and actor Richard E Grant, as well as the children of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

The Foreign Office supported the convictions but condemned the death sentence handed to Ahmed Ali Issa, saying the British Government does not support capital punishment and had made its position "very clear" to the Somali authorities.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We welcome the fact that Ahmed Ali Issa, Ahmed Elmi Samater, Ibahim Jama Afkan (in absentia) and Da'ud Sahal Idleh have been tried for the appalling murders of the Eyeington family.

"At the same time, with regard to the sentence for Ahmed Ali Issa, we wish to make clear that the British Government does not support the use of the death penalty. We advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime. We have made our position very clear to the Somaliland authorities."

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but is not recognized internationally.

Source: The Evening Chronicle